Trade sees urad imports from Brazil rising to 50,000 tonnes this year

As countries such as Brazil and Argentina start expanding acreages under black matpe or urad, India the largest consumer of pulses, expects increase in imports from those nations. Presently, Myanmar has been the main supplier of urad to India.

“Brazil has already started growing pulses. We expect at least some 50,000 tonnes of black matpe coming from Brazil this year from June-July,” said Bimal Kothari, Chairman, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the apex trade body for the sector. In the previous year, the urad imports from Brazil were around 5,000 tonnes, he said.

An IPGA delegation led by Kothari visited Brazil recently. “We told them that they should try to grow pulses and that India is a big market,” he said.

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Import rebound

India’s urad imports rebounded during 2023-24 on shortfall in domestic supplies as both the kharif and rabi output was impacted due to the erratic weather. According to Igrain India, the urad imports registered an increase of around 19 per cent during 2023-24 to around 6.23 lakh tonnes (lt) over the previous year’s 5.24 lt. In FY 21-22, India’s urad imports stood at 6.11 lt, registering a 77 per cent increase from previous year’s 3.44 lt. India has extended the duty-free imports of urad till March 31, 2025 to deal with the pulses inflation.

As per Agriculture Ministry’s second advance estimates, the urad output during 2023-24 was down at 20.55 lt compared to the previous year’s 26.31 lt. Kharif production was down at 15.50 lt over previous year’s 17.61 lt, while the rabi output was lower at 5.05 lt over previous year’s 6.33 lt, as per the second advance estimates. “Brazil and Argentina have started growing black matpe and the production is going to increase in those countries” said Rahul Chauhan of Igrain India. Production in the earlier years in these two countries ranged between 30,000-40,000 tonnes. Myanmar has been the traditional supplier of urad and these two South American countries have the potential to emerge as an alternative source of urad for India, he said.

Despite the shortfall in output, urad prices have been largely stable and range-bound in the past two months on steady supplies, Chauhan said. Production in Myanmar is estimated to be around 6.6 lt, he said. Prices of imported urad in Chennai are ruling ₹8,950 per quintal for the fair average quality (FAQ) and ₹9,550 per quintal for the standard quality (SQ). The FAQ quality urad in Mumbai and Kolkata ruled at ₹9,100 on Thursday.

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